Amigurumi Caricatures

These 2 were a custom order - the customer sent me some photos of her sister and brother-in-law and wrote a little bit about each of them and asked me to make amigurumi caricatures of them. They were great fun to make - and she said they were a big hit!

Cute cushions :)

I haven't blogged for a whole week! We've been really busy preparing a children's show which happened last night. Samaritan's Purse is a charity which runs a something called Operation Christmas Child which organises the distribution of shoeboxes filled with gifts, which have been donated by people around the world, to children in countries in need. We recieved a delivery of around 1000 shoeboxes a couple of weeks ago and have distributed some in schools around the area but the majority of them were given out last night at the end of the show. Some of my amigurumi dolls featured as part of the show in 3 short videos so hopefully they will be up on the blog sometime soon for you to see. In the meantime our sofa cushions got some new super-cute friends this Christmas from mymimi.

Plush-Spotting in Zagreb

This weekend we have been in Zagreb and amongst other things we visited artOmat which is an alternative Christmas fair - selling arty handmade items - including some Plush art!

This artist - Rec has her plush art for sale in a concept store in Zagreb called Prostor which we didn't have time to visit but it's on the list for next time! Their stand at the Craft fair was very cool.

and... as part of the artOmat fair the artists were offering workshops - we were a day too late to go to this one but look - it's called Plush Adventure! (and yes those are naked plush people in the picture maybe I should have put a warning on this blog post!)

As a plush geek kind of person this was all very exciting for me to see that the whole plush art culture thing is starting to take off in this part of the world - although Zagreb is like a whole other world compared to BiH and to the other parts of Croatia I have visited - but anyway it's getting nearer! Now I need to see if I can make contact with any of these people and take part in any shows or craft fairs a bit nearer to home.

I have never been so cold!

I don't think I have ever felt so cold as I have these last few days - but you can't complain too much when everything looks so beautiful and white :)

Momiji Fudge

If you have never heard of Momiji dolls then you must check them out. They are awesome! I am on their mailing list and for December they are doing an 'Advent Calendar' where everyday until Christmas they email something like a discount code or a craft tutorial or some other special offer. The other day they emailed a recipie for fudge (click and scroll down to December 8th) so today I tried it out. It tastes great!

The CandyLand Stories

I'll be off to the post office in the morning to send these 4 pieces off for the CandyLand show which will be at the Hot*Pop Gallery in Milwaukee.

The Great Facebook Bake-off #2

This week's challenge for the Great Facebook Bake-off was to make Christmas cookies. Here's my entry - Stained Glass Window cookies. I made them using a normal cookie recipie. I have some cookie cutters that cut a hole from the middle of the cookie and I put 2 boiled sweets into the hole of each cookie and then put the lot into the oven and baked them as normal. Oh - and as you can see, the snow has now all gone.

First snow-day in Jajce

Last night it snowed - not for the first time this winter, but it was the first time that the snow settled. This is the view from my window this morning - an attempt at a panorama photo hence the line because I don't know how to edit photos! Anyway, as you can see it is a beautiful view. There is another mountain behind the last one you can see but the clouds were over it this morning. This is our first winter living in a really wintry place. I am so excited to see the snow - and this is just the beginning. I can't wait to see snow up to my knees :)


A lot of today's snow has melted already but here is another view from early this evening:

another of my recent creations...

Today has been busy - it's already almost 8:30pm and I haven't done any amigurumi-ing yet! I really need to get on with it because I have a lot of things that need to be sent out on Monday and some of them have not been made yet! So while I go and get on with making more amigurumi you can enjoy looking at another of my recent creations. Hope you like her :)

Little Dead Mommy...

Little Dead Mommy was the very lucky winner of my christmas giveaway and is now the proud owner of a Desktop Christmas Tree :) After the giveaway she contacted me and offered to feature me on her blog one day. She sent me some great interview questions which really made me think and today she has put the post up on her blog. Make sure you click here and read it! You will probably find out something about me that you didn't know before. Oh and don't forget to follow her blog as well.

working hard

I've been working hard today finishing off unfinished amigurumis and making new ones. I've got quite a few custom orders to do and I need to finish my pieces for the CandyLand Show so it's hard work time at the moment. It's good to be busy though :)

Dan Avnoj-a - a funny moment!

Tomorrow is Dan Republike - or should I say was Dan Republike in the former Yugoslavia. It was the day when the creation of the country was celebrated. The actual meeting in which Yugoslavia was signed into being took place in Jajce ,the town where we now live, on 29th November 1943. Yugoslavia is no more but there are plenty of people who still remember the good old days and for some of those people Jajce is a place of pilgrimage and they come every year for the Dan Republike celebrations. This year we were part of those celebrations playing a mixture of Ex-Yu rock and English language covers. It was great fun and we were well recieved. This video shows what happened when the vibrations caused by a band playing loud music on a slightly dodgy stage caused a PA speaker to fall over and hit the keyboard on it's way down! Amazingly we didn't miss a beat and carried on til the end of the song. And even more amazingly the keyboard wasn't damaged at all - as you can see if you watch this video of us playing another song later on!

Black Friday Discount!

I wanted to let you all know that for the first time ever there is a special offer on at www.outoftheframe.etsy.com. If you use the code BLACKFRIDAY2010 you will get 15% off any order. The offer closes on Friday at midnight. Enjoy shopping :)

a few too many works in progress?

This is what my work table looks like at the moment - a complete mess! I've got too many things on the go at once I think and I'm not being very focused in finishing one thing before starting the next. Oh well, I guess it will sort itself out in time - I will eventually finish everything.

How organised is your work space?

available to pre-order now...

The next issue of Stuffed Magazine comes out on 1st January and is available to pre-order now with free postage within the US until 25th November and reduced rates for international postage. It's an awesome magazine full of amazing photos of amazing creations made by amazing people - many of which I know, AND.... I'm going to be in it this time so buy your copy now! Click here to pre-order :)

Cupcake competition

Some of my friends have started a group on facebook called The Great FB Bakeoff and the idea is to bake stuff in whatever category they choose, post the photos and let people vote. The first category they've chosen is Cupcakes. I've never done cupcakes before. I've done muffins which are similar but the don't require the fancy icing that cupcakes do! These are the cupcakes I've made this evening still in their pre-icing state. I think icing will come tomorrow I'm too tired for that now. They are Banana and White Chocolate Cupcakes from my favourite book How to Be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson.

Interestingly I used rubber reusable cupcake cases for the first time today and as you can see those cupcakes came out flat on top whereas the ones I made using paper cases look more like muffins! I'm sure there's a scientific explaination for that but I have no idea what it is! Anyone?

Which one looks more like ice cream?

I am trying to find a way to make Mr Whippy style ice cream for hair for this amigurumi. These are the best 2 that I've come up with so far but I'm still not 100% satisfied. Which one do you think looks more like ice crem - a or b?

Cherry Lolly Tree

A sneak preview of one of the pieces I'm thinking of sending for the Plush Team CandyLand show at Hot*Pop - a Cherry Lolly Tree.

another show!

I am excited to say that outoftheframe will soon be in another show! This time it's in Chicago at the OhNo!Doom gallery. As far as I understand the pieces from the exhibition will also be available to buy online and you can sign up here to 'see art first' to receive the preview list by email.

plush spotting in London

Christmas is not so much of a big deal in Bosnia and Herzegovina as it is in the UK which in many ways is very nice but there are a few things I miss. Well maybe that's too strong, I don't miss them but I like them. One of those things is Christmas window displays in big department stores.

I am in the UK visiting at the moment and I was in London with my sister on Saturday. I took the opportunity to go and see some of the window displays and I was very excited to see plush by the Felt Mistress in one of the windows of Selfridges. There is also a small exhibition inside and some of her dolls are for sale in their 'concept store'. They are truely amazing dolls so if you are in London in the next couple of months make sure you check out Selfridges.

and the winner is...

This is the randomized list of everyone's entries.

And here's the winning number:

Congratulations to littledeadmommy for winning the desktop Christmas tree!

It's Christmas giveaway time!

I made this Amigurumi Desktop Christmas Tree as a perfect decoration for livening up your office, study or bedroom (wherever you have your desk!) during the holiday season. She is supercute will bring a smile to your face just when you need it!

So what do you have to do to get the chance to win a Desktop Christmas Tree? Each of these things gives you one entry into the giveaway. The links are all there for you to find my facebook page etc... just click!

1. leave a comment on this blog

2. follow this blog

3. leave a comment on the outoftheframe facebook page

4. 'Like' the outoftheframe facebook page

5. Tweet this giveaway

6. follow me on twitter

7. heart my Etsy shop

8. buy something from my Etsy shop - (this counts as 5 entries)

make sure you let me know which of these you have done and that I have a way to contact you if you win!

The giveaway will close at midnight GMT on Friday 5th November and the winner will be announced very soon after.
Enjoy :)

Christmas at outoftheframe

The Holiday season is here! Today is Halloween but as I'm not really into that I thought I'd show you what I've got in my shop for the Christmas Season. If you're looking for cute and unusual decorations this Christmas season then outoftheframe is the place to look!

And don't forget tomorrow is giveaway day :)

Look What We Made!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the latest Plush Team Challenge - FrankenPlush, and I uploaded a photo of 2 arms and 2 legs that I was posting off to Cat of RaggyRat in the UK.

Well Cat recieved these random limbs about a week ago and has now completed our FrankenPlush. Cat's kids have named her Ingrid Ennerver! I think she's awesome :)

LightBox Attempt 1

Thank you to everyone who has given me advice recently about taking photos and lightboxes. I have been looking around in shops here to see what stuff I can get to make a light box and this is where I'm at so far. I have 2 more big sheets of that white card so I will continue to experiment and maybe make something different but this is a definite improvement on what I had!

cheesecake and being a domestic goddess

For Matt's birthday I made mini cheesecakes. The recipie is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess which has to be my favourite cookbook. It seems that even I can almost seem like a domestic goddess when I bake from the recipies in this book!

there's snow on the mountains!

In an earlier post I wrote about how the view from our windows here is amazing - well this morning we woke up to snow on the mountains which makes it even more beautiful. I can't wait to see what it's like with snow everywhere and the sun shining. This photo doesn't really do it justice - it's cloudy and grey, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. You can also see the thick black cable which is our new telephone line put in last week to finally connect us to the internet. It has been put installed in a pretty dodgy way - it hangs down really low before it gets to the telegraph pole and the first night after they installed it the cable slipped down a bit more making the whole house shake!

This is a bad attempt at taking a panoramic picture from our windows! The wall doesn't really bend at that point! As you can see this was on a sunny day and before the installation of the phone line! The ruins on the right are of a mosque.

working down my to-do list

I've got a string hanging from my curtain rail with notes clipped to it listing all the amigurumi things I need to make and the deadlines. This helps me keep organised and gives me a sense of satisfaction when I finish something and I can take it off the string! At the moment I'm working on some more Christmas stuff for my Etsy shop and on pieces for the Plush Team CandyLand Exhibition which will be at Hot*Pop Gallery in January .

Partizanka

This Partizanka is a custom order I've just finished. I'm really happy with how she turned out - but I'm not happy with the photos! So far I haven't found a good place to take photos in our new house. They all come out too dark. Maybe it's time to make a lightbox - any thoughts on this?

Chocolate Mug Cake

When we lived in the UK we had pudding pretty much every day - I mean what meal is complete without pudding? But here in Bosnia and Herzegovina it's pretty unusual to have pudding after your meal. This was pretty hard to get used to at first - but now I can easily finish a meal without feeling the longing for chocolate cake and ice cream. Today however we decided we would have pudding - so I made 2 chocolate mug cakes. You can make one in 5mins, they're super easy, taste good and it's kind of amusing to watch them rise in the microwave. If you've never made one before then click here and give it a go.

PlushYou 2010

And we're finally online :)

These are some photos of my dolls at PlushYou 2010 taken by Anne-Claire of Hibou Cards. As you can see they are in good company - Just in front of them are the Moon Buns from Moon's Creations, on the wall are the cats from Yummy Pancake and you can just see on the shelf above some spider babies from Scrumptious Delight.

FrankenPlush

This is my part of the latest Plush Team Challenge. I'll be sending this off to RaggyRat in the UK and then she'll do her part and in a couple of weeks we'll see what kind of monster we have created!

The City of Kings

It's been 2 weeks since I last posted a blog! that's a long time - the reason... we've moved and still have no internet connection! But here's a quick blog post for those of you asking for pictures. This is where we live now - Jajce, the city of kings. That's our place on the left and on the right and going up to the top of the picture you can see the old city wall going up to the castle. More blog posts and pictures will come soon - whenever the internet connection arrives, which as it has been every day this week, is promised for tomorrow!

more of my sewing endevours...

This week I've been to a sewing course that was held in our church for a couple of hours each morning. While most people were interested in making clothes for themselves I decided to try making clothes for amigurumis!

'a' is my first attempt at making a summer tunic top type thing. It was a bit bulky round the top but not too bad as first try.

'b' is my second attempt and turned out a lot better.

'c' is one of my dolls wearing the top - it doesn't really go with her outfit but I had to try it on a doll to check it was the right size.

'd' shows my first attempt at making jeans - they're unfinished and a bit too small so I'll try again later.

All in all I think it's pretty good progress for 3 mornings work and has given me the basics I need to keep going. Eventually I'm sure I'll make something I'm really happy with.

And if you're interested in how my curtains turned out you can see one of them in my blog post finally - a space to be creative.

LifeSavers

I finished this a couple of days ago. It's for a plush team project for our exhibition which will be at hot*pop in Milwaukee in January.

finally - a space to be creative

Those of you who regularly read my blog will know that very soon - like in about 10 days we are moving from Mostar to Jajce. I'm excited about moving for lots of reasons, new challenges, new start, new opportunites, meeting new people, exciting times, living in a beautiful part of the world and somewhere new to live.

We found a place to live in Jajce about a month ago and over the last couple of weeks we've been moving our furniture there and getting it ready for when we move in. It's a really great place - probably the biggest place we've lived in in our 12 years of being married which means that we have space to be creative! No more wool and amigurumi stuff all over the sofa and the living room floor. No more guitars sleeping in the spare bed or camping out in the living room. Finally we have enough space so that everything can have it's place :)

This is one corner of my space - there's another corner too but it's not finished yet. Oh and the view from the window is amazing - but that can be another blog post!

Cute and Cuddly Cushions

Cute and Cuddly Cushions - my first treasury in a while. Click here to see the real thing and make sure you check out the shops of all the amazing people who made these cushions - you can do it by clicking on each individual picture.

Making curtains is not for me!

Last night and today I've been making curtains for our new place. It has a weird curtain system with clips instead of curtain hooks or tabs so in theory it's all really simple and all you need to do is hem around big rectangles of fabric, clip them up and you've got your curtains. The thing is that straight lines are just so hard to do - especially when they have to be 2 metres long! I have to say that I didn't enjoy making them at all cos I knew that they were all wonky and there was nothing I could do to make it right! The fabric was so slippy and stretchy it was hard to keep the tension right and I had to use the lines on the living room floor as a guide to pin up the hems! Anyway they're finished now and tomorrow we will try hanging them up and see if they work...

And the winner of the Autumn/Fall giveaway is...

Like last time I put my list of all the entries into the list randomizer at random.org and then I generated a random number to find the winner. Here is the list and the winning number. I still can't work out how to get the list bigger but it's there so you can see I did it!

Those of you with amazing vision will be able to read from the list who is number 5, but for the rest of us who can't see it I would like to announce Fiona as the winner of that Autumn/Fall giveaway thus proving that the saying 'better late than never' is true as she was the last person to enter just one minute before the giveaway closed!

Thank you to everyone who entered and look out for the Christmas giveaway coming at the beginning of November :)